Good Morning, I will be discussing a novel by Malorie Blackman, called Tell Me No Lies. I chose this book mostly because of its genre, which is modern fiction. This type of books deal with real life problems, in which fictional characters face. In this case, the main character, Michael Woods, faces the problem of an abusive father.

Plot

The story is about two characters called Michael and Gemma, both have similar living situations. However, when Michael moves to Gemma’s school, he doesn’t want everyone knowing about his mum being in jail, and how he was abused by his dad. This all changes when Gemma recognises Michael from one of her scrapbooks, which hold pictures of mothers in different backgrounds and situations. When Michael is forced to express himself to Gemma, she uses it to her advantage, and blackmails Michael for such things like money.

Characters

After reading this book I discovered that the most important elements in the story are the characters, especially the two main characters which are Michael Woods, and Gemma. However, as the story progresses, my opinions of the characters changes. For example, Gemma, at first seems as if she was just a lonely girl without a mum and without a good role model for her to look up to, at this stage of the book, I was sympathetic towards her. However, as things progress and she starts to use Mike’s misfortune to her advantage, I start to dislike her. On the other hand, with Mike it was the complete opposite. At first, when he was bullying Gemma, I had no sympathy for him, but when he expresses his feelings to Gemma later on in the story, my impression of him changed completely. This is the main reason for Michael being my favourite character.

Themes

The issue this book deals with is very touching. It’s about a boy in his teens, called Michael Woods, he has been abused by his dad, and so has his mum. Until Mike, decides to end it all, and he accidentally kills his father. However, the part that was very sad was when Mike’s mum finds out he killed his father, and she takes the blame. She is then sentenced to ten years in prison. This shows how much she loves Mike. The thing I liked most was how the book gave me the option to look at this situation without being integrated in the scenario itself. This was